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Nude Today with Dr. William A. Lipsmacker
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Poussin's Nymph with Satyrs: the timelessness of manual pleasure
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Poussin's Nymph with Satyrs: the timelessness of manual pleasure
It is said that Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
never painted a subject from any period
later than the twelfth century—so he
evidently didn’t see anything modern about
masturbation.
The Nymph with Satyrs reside in one of
Poussin’s ancient, mythic landscapes. We
are in the long-past golden age where the
only work that must be done with the
hands is to seek one’s own delight. Et in
Arcadia Onan.
While in other paintings, such as his
Bacchanalia, Poussin hints at the
debauchery to come, here we find
never painted a subject from any period
later than the twelfth century—so he
evidently didn’t see anything modern about
masturbation.
The Nymph with Satyrs reside in one of
Poussin’s ancient, mythic landscapes. We
are in the long-past golden age where the
only work that must be done with the
hands is to seek one’s own delight. Et in
Arcadia Onan.
While in other paintings, such as his
Bacchanalia, Poussin hints at the
debauchery to come, here we find
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ourselves full witnesses to the deed. The nearer satyr pulls back the
nymph’s drapery to better observe her busy fingers, while his friend
works himself off watching both of them—and perhaps us as well. Almost
the painting invites the viewer to join its neoclassical circle-jerk.
Here begins the difficulty for the modern eye: for this remarkably
obscene painting playing games with our gaze strikes us as entirely
contemporary. The frankness with which the artist lays out for us a
young woman masturbating herself to orgasm in the foreground – her
splayed thighs, her back arching as she rocks her hand between her
legs… A satyr attending to his own pleasure behind a tree – surely, this is
our own invention?
We are too arrogant in our sexualised world: having come up with the
mass-produced sex toy, we begin to imagine that we also own the act
itself. As Poussin shows us with his seventeenth-century handiwork,
evidently not. And by projecting these actions back to the very dawn of
time, he seeks to proclaim their deep antiquity.
He is right. We do not own our desires; we have not invented a new
realm of the human. We have instead a great deal to learn from past
masters like Poussin. As we relish his shameless nudes, we must learn his
personal humility.
Poussin epitomises that humility in a double sense: out of love with his
own time, open to the possibility that people might have had good bodies
in the past, he discovered the classical civilisations with glee. Yet he did
not merely indulge his neoclassicism as ill-disciplined fantasy: Poussin
also had the humility to paint the world accurately. His topic of sexplay
comes from studying Ancient Greek pottery; its physical realism owes a
debt of gratitude to a very obliging young model.
Poussin’s mastery of line and academic interest in detail can appear
today a macabre blend of dry intellectualism with voyeuristic gusto. But,
like the Renaissance greats anatomizing corpses by candlelight, it was
also a commitment to place the world as it really was above his desire to
see it in a certain way.
Combining that honesty of gaze with his openness to past forms of life,
Poussin displays a courage that contemporary artists rarely match: the
courage to see the truth of a life of careless pleasure, and the
endlessness of human desire – and then to paint a nude girl buttering her
muffin in public.
nymph’s drapery to better observe her busy fingers, while his friend
works himself off watching both of them—and perhaps us as well. Almost
the painting invites the viewer to join its neoclassical circle-jerk.
Here begins the difficulty for the modern eye: for this remarkably
obscene painting playing games with our gaze strikes us as entirely
contemporary. The frankness with which the artist lays out for us a
young woman masturbating herself to orgasm in the foreground – her
splayed thighs, her back arching as she rocks her hand between her
legs… A satyr attending to his own pleasure behind a tree – surely, this is
our own invention?
We are too arrogant in our sexualised world: having come up with the
mass-produced sex toy, we begin to imagine that we also own the act
itself. As Poussin shows us with his seventeenth-century handiwork,
evidently not. And by projecting these actions back to the very dawn of
time, he seeks to proclaim their deep antiquity.
He is right. We do not own our desires; we have not invented a new
realm of the human. We have instead a great deal to learn from past
masters like Poussin. As we relish his shameless nudes, we must learn his
personal humility.
Poussin epitomises that humility in a double sense: out of love with his
own time, open to the possibility that people might have had good bodies
in the past, he discovered the classical civilisations with glee. Yet he did
not merely indulge his neoclassicism as ill-disciplined fantasy: Poussin
also had the humility to paint the world accurately. His topic of sexplay
comes from studying Ancient Greek pottery; its physical realism owes a
debt of gratitude to a very obliging young model.
Poussin’s mastery of line and academic interest in detail can appear
today a macabre blend of dry intellectualism with voyeuristic gusto. But,
like the Renaissance greats anatomizing corpses by candlelight, it was
also a commitment to place the world as it really was above his desire to
see it in a certain way.
Combining that honesty of gaze with his openness to past forms of life,
Poussin displays a courage that contemporary artists rarely match: the
courage to see the truth of a life of careless pleasure, and the
endlessness of human desire – and then to paint a nude girl buttering her
muffin in public.